Bafomet, first M14 in Poland

Poland has its first-ever M14 drytooling route thanks to Michał Król and, immediately afterwards, Marcin Gąsienica-Kotelnicki who freed Bafomet on Thursday 7 February. The climb is located in a cave above the town of Zakopan in the Tatras mountain range which hosts other calibre routes such as Therion M13, Omen M12, Samael M12 and Szatańskie Wersety M9+.

The new line is 30m long and weaves its way through a massive roof past long reaches, tricky undercuts and three bouldery cruxes and Król needed 25 minutes for the first ascent. "When we sent Therion M13 last year" explained Król "we knew that the cave offered another hard line, possibly even harder. We started working this project in mid-December. When we finally reached the middle we realised it would indeed be possible to link the entire route. But it certainly wasn't easy... There are some long, hard, boulder moves right at the start and one day I even broke my icetool. What we needed was just one good day! Some peace, strength and luck… Last Thursday that day arrived!"